Jordi SOLÉ (Greens/EFA, ES), and Terry REINTKE (Greens/EFA, DE), Vice-Presidents, hold a press conference ahead of the plenary session in Strasbourg (04-07 July 2022) and explains the priorities of their group.

Strasbourg

plenary session

press conference

REINTKE, Terry (Greens/EFA, DE)

SOLÉ, Jordi (Greens/EFA, ES)

Greens/EFA

Press conference by Jordi SOLÉ (Greens/EFA, ES), and Terry REINTKE (Greens/EFA, DE), Vice-Presidents

SOUNDBITE (English), Terry REINTKE (Greens/EFA, DE), Vice-president of the Greens/EFA Group, Good morning, everyone. My name is Terry Reinkte, one of the vice presidents of the Green/EFA group in the European Parliament. And probably, you all know what is the first topic that we wanted to talk about, because tomorrow it's going to be crunch time on taxonomy and we are going to be facing a very important vote for the European Parliament. You probably all know that the Greens, is a group was pushing for having this objection to the delegated act that the Commission proposed brought forward. It's a cross-party initiative now and they are mainly three points that we believe are crucial why we should vote against this taxonomy proposal of the European Commission.

SOUNDBITE (English), Terry REINTKE (Greens/EFA, DE), Vice-president of the Greens/EFA Group, And the first one is, of course, our long standing criticism of including gas and nuclear into this definition of sustainable investment, because we believe that it's going to have a broader impact on the question of how we define sustainability. And as you know, Greens have long standing fought against fossil fuels and especially also against nuclear energy. So we think that it's wrong that gas and nuclear are included. We also believe that using the tool of a delegated act is not giving the European Parliament the role that it would actually deserve in such a political question.

SOUNDBITE (English), Terry REINTKE (Greens/EFA, DE), Vice-president of the Greens/EFA Group, This is why we always said it lacks democracy and that's why we wanted to be stopped and have a proper discussion about what sustainable investment should look like. And the third point, and this is a more recent development, obviously, about the war in Ukraine, you have probably heard the calls from Ukraine that they are against the European Union adopting this taxonomy proposal, especially because it would support gas power plants, which obviously, as we are trying to become more independent from energy imports, especially from Russia, would be a completely wrong signal right now. This is why we are strongly against the taxonomy proposal. We are going to vote in favour of the objection tomorrow and we still hope that we will find a majority for this.

SOUNDBITE (English), Terry REINTKE (Greens/EFA, DE), Vice-president of the Greens/EFA Group, The second point I briefly wanted to talk about is the question of abortion rights on a global scale. You probably followed the debate on abortion rights and our reaction to the recent ruling of the Supreme Court of the United States. And yesterday, we, as Greens, support the call for, in order to counter this authoritarian backlash and the recent developments in the US, to introduce the right to abortion into the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. And this is going to be an important demand also for the process that we are envisioning regarding the convention that the European Parliament has been calling for.

SOUNDBITE (English), Terry REINTKE (Greens/EFA, DE), Vice-president of the Greens/EFA Group, And the third point I very briefly wanted to mention is the discussion on the Northern Ireland protocol. You have probably seen that we are going to debate this tomorrow here in the European Parliament. And we obviously believe that what the UK government is doing right now is going against international law and that they are putting the Good Friday agreement and obviously the situation in Northern Ireland at risk. And this is why we are calling to get back to the negotiation table. We believe that for the issues and challenges on the ground, practical solutions can be found. And this is why it's of importance, of great importance right now that the UK comes back to the negotiation table and that we find solutions on the basis of the Northern Ireland project. I will leave it here and I'm happy about questions. Thank you.

SOUNDBITE (English), Jordi SOLÉ (Greens/EFA, ES), Vice-president of the Greens/EFA Group, Good morning to everyone. My name is Jordi and I am vice president also of the Greens/EFA Group. I will briefly tackle the DSA and DMA, then windfall tax debate and then the national vetoes that are undermining the global tax deal. On the DSA and the DMA. Overall, we are very happy to have secured a strong key wins in both texts, particularly around protecting the fundamental rights of all Internet users and sensitive personal data, which was a key issue for us in DSA.

SOUNDBITE (English), Jordi SOLÉ (Greens/EFA, ES), Vice-president of the Greens/EFA Group, A key win is that the independent researchers are given access to the platforms' data so that they can research how the use of algorithms is fueling manipulation and disinformation and its effect on the public. And on DMA, we are convinced that this regulation will help stopping the occurrence of harmful practises by big tech giants and set rules to ensure fairness and more choice for the consumers in the future.

SOUNDBITE (English), Jordi SOLÉ (Greens/EFA, ES), Vice-president of the Greens/EFA Group, On the windfall tax debate, we were the group that asked to have this debate in the plenary that it would be added. Nowadays, people across the European Union are suffering with an inflation crisis while energy and food company companies are making record profits. So this talisman of windfall tax is needed and this should be coordinated at EU level. So we push for that debate in order to also have the debate on the EU involvement in coordinating this windfall tax and on national vetoes.

SOUNDBITE (English), Jordi SOLÉ (Greens/EFA, ES), Vice-president of the Greens/EFA Group, The power of individual governments that we are seeing, such as Hungary, to veto such vital files as the global tax deal is clearly an outdated power which is hampering progress. And of course, the Council urgently needs to switch to majority voting on tax matters, but also on other issues and put an end to the right to block such important deals by some member states. Thank you.